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- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
Herbert Eimert (1887-1972) was the founder of the world's first studio for electronic music, director of the Cologne radio program 'Musikalisches Nachtprogramm', with which a new musical aesthetic direction was developed for the first time in music history by a radio station, editor of the publication series 'die Reihe', author of fundamental books on twelve-tone and serial technique and gave impetus to the Webern renaissance. Using over 400 annotated original documents (Eimert's correspondence, which he bequeathed to the author in his will), the history of the origins and development of electronic and serial music as well as the Webern renaissance is critically presented from Eimert's perspective. The edition contains an original biographical preface and an appendix consisting of letters and documents. The original German edition is available at ISBN 9783756257690) or ISBN 9783756802951. Helmut Kirchmeyer, born in Düsseldorf in 1930. Studied musicology, German studies, philosophy and sociology in Cologne as well as law, criminology, psychology and church history in Cologne and Bonn. Studied music in Düsseldorf and Cologne (piano, composition, instrumentation). 1954 Doctorate at the University of Cologne, 1982 Habilitation in Music and Media Studies at the University of Düsseldorf. 1960-1982 worked at the Technical University of Aachen (musicology). 1961-1995 taught at the later Cologne University of Applied Sciences for Documentation. Since 1972 head of the Robert Schumann Conservatory, Robert Schumann Institute, Robert Schumann University Düsseldorf as director, dean, rector. Retired in 1995. Kirchmeyer is a corresponding member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig. Translated from the German by Annekatrin Krätschmer-Grafton. Mrs. Grafton grew up in East Germany and studied Musicology at the Martin-Luther-University in Halle/Salle. She began her career as a Music Dramaturg at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar. After the fall of the Berlin wall she moved to England to join her future husband, and together the family settled in Wales with their three young children. There she completed a post graduate degree in education and worked as a German teacher at Ysgol Dewi Sant in St. Davids. Today she lives in Warwickshire and works as a German tutor and translator. In her free time she enjoys walking, gardening and singing.
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Table of Contents
Translator's notes
Table of Contents
Preface
First part: The time up to 1945
I. Family relationships
1. The family background
2. The father
3. The mother
4. Siblings
5. The uncle
6. Living conditions
7. The marriage
8. Children
9. Character traits
II. Childhood and youth
1. Elementary school
2. The Gymnasium
3. Religious education
4. Youth pranks
5. Music education
6. Childhood and youth impressions
III. The war
1. War volunteer Eimert
2. Service behind the front
3. The France campaign. Sommes offensive
4. ‘In den Schluchten des Balkan’. In the gorges of the Balkans
5. Verdun and Cambrai. The wound
6. Military hospital, end of the war, recovery, illness, escape and return
7. Awards
IV. Between the wars. Music studies
1. Abitur
2. Music studies. Dispute with Franz Bölsche
3. The Cologne Society for New Music
4. Jefim Golyscheff
a) Preface
b) Golysev – Golyshev - Golyscheff
c) Eimert's account and Gojowy's corrections
d) The influence
V. An 'Atonal Music Theory', 1924
1. Source material
2. Further background
3. An essay as a prelude
4. Structure
5. The Preface
6. A landmark decision
7. Impact
8. Music notation
9. Content
10. 'Atonale Satztechnik' (Atonal compositional technique) by Anton Bauer
a) The source
b) About the person
c) The method
d) The composer
e) Bauer on Hauer and Eimert
f) The speculative relationship between Eimert and Bauer
g) Echo
VI. The Hauer Dispute, 1924
VII. Object lesson dissertation, 1929
1. Introduction
2. Eimert’s version
3. The facts
4. Corrections
5. The Bücken report
6. The Schneider report
7. The first Hartmann report
a) The verdict
b) Motives
8. Comparison of the expert opinions: Bücken – Hartmann
9. Redactions and Retrial
10. The second Hartmann Report
11. The faculty vote
12. Publishing of the dissertation. The three versions
a) The first version
b) The second version
c) The third version
13. The two curricula vitae
14. The printed dissertation
a) Source
b) Introduction
c) The theses of the first chapter
d) The theses of the second chapter
e) The theses of the third chapter
f) The theses of the fourth chapter
15. A chapter on language
16. Evaluation
17. An epilogue: the case of Hermann Unger
VIII. Eimert as an editor. Under the political yoke
IX. An opera guide book, 1936
1. Founder Karl Storck
2. History of origin
a) Type opera guide
b) System Storck
c) Editorial office Schwers
d) Editorial office Eimert
3. Eimert's takeover
a) Background
b) Opera book statistics (as far as can be determined):
c) Supplements
4. Comparison of texts
5. An aporia?
6. Image Supplements
7. Advertising
8. Political entanglements
a) Forced shifts
b) The preface of December 1936 to the 37th/38th edition of 1937
9. Post-war editions
10. Counting of editions
X. The Süskind Affair, 1944
Second part: The time after 1945
I. Preliminary Note
II. The questionnaire
1. About the text
2. Regarding the questionnaires
III. Head of Music Department Eimert
1. Prerequisites
2. Trauma Burghardt. Mishaps and their consequences
3. New Beginning. General Manager Hanns Hartmann
4. Hartmann – Eimert and the personnel merry-go-round at the radio station
5. Karl O. Koch – Eigel Kruttge – Otto Tomek
IV. Music critic Eimert
1. Preface
2. A 'Streich-Concert' (DeletingConcert)*.
On the person of Friedrich Berger
3. Eimert on music critique in 1945
4. Implementation
5. Philosophy and Language
6. Supplement 'Here Herbert Eimert was wrong'
7. Accumulation of offices
V. Platforms
1. The ‘Musical Night Program, 1948-1966
a) 'Night Program' and 'Musical Night Program'
b) Statistics
c) Aims
d) Significance
e) Echo
2. 'die Reihe' 1955-1962
a) Structure
b) Motives and false hopes
c) An epilogue
VI. A Twelve-Tone Textbook, 1950
1. Foundations
2. The time of origin
3. Publishing acceptance
a) Schott publishers – Mainz
b) Breitkopf & Härtel Publishers, Wiesbaden
c) Success
4. Structure
a) The original, 1950
b) The extension of the 2nd edition, 1952
c) Assignment of the original extension
d) Contents
5. Schönberg-Eimert
6. Eimert-Krenek
7. 'Can twelve-tone music be taught?'*, 1951
VII. The first Cologne studio for electronic music, 1951
1. The founding
a) The founding protocol
b) The objection
c. The secret goal
d) The furnishings
2. The creation of legends
a) Preface
b) Darmstadt
c) Detmold
f) Berlin. Winckel and Blacher
g) Robert Beyer
3. The Detmold Tonmeistertagung
a) The dates
b) The conference report
c) Regarding the course of the conference
4. The Meyer-Eppler Dispute
a) Facts
b) The dispute over authenticity
5. The Thienhaus trauma
a) From Woldemar to Thienhaus, or: from madness to devil’s work
b) From the Detmold conference report
c) The relationship between Meyer-Eppler, Thienhaus and Trautwein
6. Studio for Tricks or Composition
7. Stockhausen as an employee?
8. The Beyer dispute
a) Prior understanding
b) Basement studio
c) Eimert’s and Beyer’s tasks
d) The facts
e) The opinions
f) From the sound engineer problem to the Beyer case
g) Conclusion
h) The Wörner corrections
i) An apparent time problem
j) Compositional reality andtheoretical rejection
k) The Sinus-tone
9. Between competent competence and non-competent competence
10. Effects
11. Side issues. Stockhausen's 'Electronic Mass'
12. The Webern Renaissance
a) Preconceptions
b) Arguments and counter-arguments, polemic and boycott
VIII. Darmstadt or (and) Cologne
1. The Kranichstein Darmstadt Summer Courses
2. Priorities
3. Steinecke and Eimert
4. Steinecke against Eimert
5. Publication comparisons
6. Helper Eimert
IX. Encounters
1. Ernst Krenek
2. Marion Rothärmel
X. Conflicts
1. Preliminary understanding
2. Readers' and listeners' letters
3. Fred K. Prieberg
4. Theodor W. Adorno
a) Prior understanding
b) Adorno's book on Wagner and Eimert’s response
c) Stockhausen and Adorno
5. Hans-Heinz Stuckenschmidt
6. Karlheinz Stockhausen
a) The human aspect
b) The technical aspect
c) Consequences
d) Eimert against Stockhausen. The 1972 'Melos' article
e) Stockhausen against Eimert. The letter to Höller from November 1, 1990
f) An epilogue
g) A first afterword
h) A second afterword
7. The 'Spiegel' dispute
a) Crossed crossings, or: hopes unfulfilled
b) A pile of broken glass
XI. The keyword as a weapon. Eimert and German university musicology
1. Background
a) The situation after 1945
b) German university musicology after 1945
c) Exceptions
d) Deceived expectations
2. Keyword ‘Atonalität’ ('Atonality')
a) Background
b) The keyword article
3. The public response
a) The Metzger radio broadcast
b) Sampling
c) Eimert contra Moser
4. An epilogue
a) Moser's Schering tables
b) A word on my own behalf
5. The Schnoor-Prieberg Trial
6. The Blume Affair
a) Background. The Cologne Congress 1958
b) The Kassel intermezzo
c) The scandal
d) Afterword
e) Strobel's role
7. The Stephan Caveat
XII. Anonymous Eimert
1. Preface
2. Conflict material 'Pausenzeichen' ('interval signal')
a) Disproportion between Hamburg and Cologne
b) A new station identification interval signal
c) Interval signal commentary in the western edition of the Rheinische Zeitung from July 24, 1948
d) Eimert as anonymouscommentator
e) The Foltz letter of complaint
f) Eimert's final reply of July 29, 1948
g) Hamburg's motivation
3. A documentation in the 'Frankfurter Hefte', 1957
4. The ‘Spiegel’ Incident
5. Cologne University Week 1967 and the 'Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'
a) Goslar alias Eimert, 1967
b) The incident
c) About the author
d) The Eimert View
e) The article
f) Sent – not sent?
XIII. 'Grundlagen der musikalischen Reihentechnik‘ – ‚Fundamentals of Serial Music technique', 1966
1. Structure and evaluation
2. The rotation problem
XIV. The second Cologne studio for electronic music, 1965
1. Preface
2. A professorship
3. The curriculum*
a) Foreword
b) Prerequisites for the program
c) General introduction
d) Practical exercises
e) Questions of meaning and organization of material
f) Scale formations
g) Series formations
h) Conclusion
4. The Zender fiasco
5. Resignation, succession and thanks
XV. A chapter on WERGO and the 'Epitaph for Aikichi Kuboyama', 1960-1962, 1965
1. Background
2. Eimert 1965
3. About the piece
4. About the technique
XVI. A ‘Lexikon der elektronischen Musik’ (‘Electronic Music Encyclopedia)', 1973
1. Publishing
2. Presentation
3. Authorship
4. A preface as a program
XVII. The end
1. Death
2. The Last Will and testament
3. Execution of the Will
Third part: The estate inventory
Preface and explanation of symbols
1 Süskind → Brues (12/1943)
2 Eimert → Süskind (1/1944)
3 Süskind → Eimert (1/1944)
4 Eimert → Süskind (around the turn 1944/45)
5 Eimert → Circular (10/1944)
Eimert (Bonn) → Family and friends
6 Eimert → Berger (8/1945)
7 Eimert → Richartz (19.10.1945)
8 Eimert → Saunders-Jacobs (11/1945)
9 Eimert → Brammertz (11/1945)
10 Eimert → Dr. Frielingsdorf (11/1945)
11 Eimert → Report Pettenberg (1/1946)
12 Eimert → Work report (1/1946)
13 Eimert → Dr. Roerich (2/1946)
14 Eimert → Prof. Dr. Kroll (2/1946)
15 Eimert → Kölnischer Kurier (2/1946)
16 Eimert → Dr. Steinforth (5/1946)
17 Eimert → Hollreiser (6/1946)
18 Oberst (Muth-Verlag) → Eimert (6/1946)
19 Eimert → Broadcasting directorship (6/1946)
20 Eimert → Broadcasting directorship (6/1946)
21 Eimert / Questionnaire (8/1946)
22 Burghardt → Eimert (12/1946)
23 Eimert → Burghardt (12/1946)
24 Klaus (Muth-Verlag) → Eimert (1/1947)
25 Eimert / Introduction program (6/1947)
26 Foltz → Westausgabe Rheinische Zeitung (7/48)
27 Eimert → Foltz (7/48)
28 Eimert → Burghardt (7/1948)
29 Dr. Heinen → Eimert (8/1948)
30 Görlinger → Eimert (8/1948)
31 Pension fund → Eimert (6/1949)
32 Schott-Verlag → Eimert (11/1949)
33 Essen opera house → Eimert (12/1949)
34 Laaff → Eimert (2/1950)
35 Dr. Heinen → Eimert (3/1950)
36 Eimert → Breitkopf & Härtel (4/1950)
37 M. v. Hase → Eimert (4/1950)
38 Eimert → M. v. Hase (4/1950)
39 v. Hase → Eimert (4/1950)
40 v. Hase → Eimert (5/1950)
41 Wackernagel → Eimert (6/1950)
42 Klaus → Eimert (10/1950)
43 Eimert → H. Hartmann (10/1950)
44 Krenek → Eimert (10/1950)
45 Koellreutter → Eimert (11/1950)
46 Eimert → Klaus (11/1950)
47 Klaus → Eimert (11/1950)
48 Mersmann → Eimert (11/1950)
49 Pfrogner → Eimert (1/1951)
50 Breitkopf & Härtel → Eimert (1/1951)
51 Liebermann → Eimert (1/1951)
52 Klaus → Eimert (2/1951)
53 Krenek → Eimert (2/1951)
54 Eimert → Krenek (2/1951)
55 Beck → Eimert (3/1951)
56 Eimert → Krenek (3/1951)
57 Krenek → Eimert (3/1951)
58 Doflein → Eimert (3/1951)
59 Adorno → Eimert (3/1951)
60 Kehr → Eimert (3/1951)
61 Heiß → Eimert (3/1951)
62 Eimert → Krenek (3/1951)
63 Klaus (Muth-Verlag) → Eimert (3/1951)
64 Krenek → Eimert (3/1951)
65 Hill → Eimert (4/1951)
66 Breitkopf & Härtel → Eimert (4/1951)
67 Doflein → Eimert (4/1951)
68 Eimert → H. Hartmann (5/1951)
69 Eimert → Prof. Dr. Dovifat (6/1951)
70 Adorno → Eimert (6/1951)
71 Stockhausen → Eimert (10/1951)
72 Eimert → Schröter (12/1951)
73 Eimert → Stuckenschmidt (1/1952)
74 Eimert → v. Hase (Breitkopf & Härtel) (1/1952)
75 Stockhausen → Eimert (1/1952)
76 Stockhausen → Eimert (2/1952)
77 Stockhausen → Eimert (2– 3/1952)
78 Stockhausen → Eimert (3/1952)
79 Eimert → Reich (3/1952)
80 Laaff → Eimert (3/1952)
81 Stockhausen → Eimert (3/1952)
82 Wand → Eimert (4/1952)
83 Eimert → Wand (4/1952)
84 Eimert → Dr. Drey (4/1952)
85 Stockhausen → Eimert (4/1952)
86 Stockhausen → Eimert (5/1952)
87 Stockhausen → Eimert (9/1952)
88 Eimert → Stuckenschmidt (11/1952)
89 Eimert → Stockhausen (12/1952)
90 Stockhausen → Eimert (12/1952)
91 Stockhausen → Eimert (12/1952)
92 Stockhausens → Eimert (12/1952)
93 Stockhausens → Eimert (12/1952
94 Stockhausen → Eimert (12/1952)
95 Eimert → Scherchen (2/1953)
96 Eimert → Maler (4/1953)
97 Bindel → Eimert (5/1953)
98 Eimert / Spoken text (5/1953)
99 Breitkopf & Härtel → Eimert (6/1953)
100 Gredinger → Eimert (9/1953)
101 Scherchen → Eimert (9/1953)
102 Klaus, Gehlsen (Muth-Verlag) → Eimert
(10/1953)
103 Eimert → Dr. Heinen (10/1953)
104 Eimert → Strobel (11/1953)
105 Stockhausen → Eimert (1/1954)
106 Dr. Steinforth → Eimert (2/1954)
107 Eimert → Dr. Steinforth (2/1954)
108 Stockhausen → Eimert (vor 3/1954).
109 Ludwig → Eimert (4/1954)
110 Eimert → Maisch (4/1954)
111 Stockhausen, Dr. Tomek → Eimert (6/1954)
112 Stockhausen → Eimert (7/1954)
113 Beck → Eimert (9/1954)
114 Eimert → Beck (9/1954)
115 H. v. Hase (Breitkopf & Härtel) → Eimert (10/1954)
116 Eimert → Schlee (12/1954)
117 Eimert → Wörner (12/1954)
118 Eimert → Strobel (1/1955)
119 Eimert → Stuckenschmidt (1/1955)
120 Eimert → Stuckenschmidt (1/1955)
121 Stuckenschmidt → Eimert (1/1955)
122 Eimert → Stuckenschmidt (1/1955)
123 Stuckenschmidt → Eimert (2/1955)
124 Eimert → E. Hartmann (Universal-Ed.) (2/1955)
125 Eimert → H. Hartmann (3/1955)
126 Krenek → Eimert (5/1955)
127 Director’s election (5/1955)
128 Krenek → Eimert (6/1955)
129 Stockhausen → Eimert (6/1955)
130 Dr. Tomek → Eimert (7/1955)
131 Eimert → Metzger (7/1955)
132 Sakiyama → Eimert (7/1955)
133 Gies → Breitkopf & Härtel (8/1955)
134 Sakiyma → Eimert (8/1955)
135 Dr. Walten → Eimert (11/1955)
136 Schlee → Eimert (11/1955)
137 Dr. Tomek → Eimert (12/1955)
138 Haas → Eimert (12/1955)
139 Metzger → Eimert (12/1955)
140 Hartleb → Eimert (12/1955)
141 Dr. Tomek → Eimert (12/1955)
142 Eimert → Strawinsky (1/1956)
143 Ligeti → Eimert (1/1956)
144 Dr. Tomek → Eimert (2/1956)
145 Eimert → Strobel (5/1956)
146 Schnebel → Eimert (7/1956)
147 Dr. Müller (Boll) → Eimert (9/1956)
148 Berendt → Eimert (10/1956)
149 Bresgen → Eimert (11/1956)
150 Dirks → Blume (11/1956)
151 Seikyama → Werner (12/1956)
152 Eimert → H. Hartmann (12/1956)
153 Stockhausen → Eimert (3/1957)
154 Ussaschevsky → Eimert (3/1957)
155 Eimert → Radio Zürich (4/1957)
156 Eimert → Gatter (4/1957)
157 van Briessen → Eimert (4/1957)
158 Anders → Eimert (undated)
159 Roos → Eimert (4/1957)
160 Eimert → H. Hartmann (4/1957)
161 Eimert → Christiane Engelbrecht (4/1957)
162 Eimert → Dr. Nachtsheim (5/1957)
163 Eimert → Roos (5/1957)
164 Breitkopf & Härtel → Eimert (6/1957)
165 Stockhausen → Eimert (6/1957)
166 Bezner → Eimert (7/1957)
167 Metzger → Eimert (9/1957)
168 Harpner → Eimert (9/1957)
169 Krenek → Eimert (9/1957)
170 Anders → Eimert (9/1957)
171 Eimert → Dr. Zieseniß (10/1957)
172 Mary Stanford → Eimert (12/1957)...
173 Willnauer → Eimert (12/1957)
174 Eimert → H. Hartmann (1/1958)
175 Anders → Eimert (2/1958)
176 Westermann → H. Hartmann (3/1958)
177 H. Hartmann → Westermann (3/1958)
178 Westermann → H. Hartmann (3/1958)
179 Izzard → Eimert (4/1958)
180 Inge Aicher Scholl → Eimert (5/1958)
181 Izzard → Eimert (5/1958)
182 Schlee → Eimert (10/1958)
183 Eimert → Schlee (10/1958)
184 Stockhausen → Eimert (12/1958)
185 Metzger → Eimert (3/1959)
186 Eimert → Schlee (2.5/1959)
187 Strobel → Eimert (10/1959)
188 Krenek → Eimert (10/1959)
189 Eimert → Krenek (1/1950)
190 Douliez → Schlee (3/1960)
191 Eimert → Schulze-Andresen (6/1960)
192 Stockhausen → Eimert (7/1960)
193 v. Buttlar → Eimert (7/1960)
194 Steinhausen → Eimert (10/1960)
195 Irene Erdmann → Eimert (11/1960)
196 Schulze-Andresen → Eimert (2/1961)
197 Henry → Eimert (2/1961)
198 Klein → Eimert (2/1961)
199 Zemanek → Eimert (3/1961)
200 Eimert own comment (3/1961)
201 Eimert → Jelinek (3/1961)
202 Eimert all-interval rows (3/1961)
203 Eimer text (3/1961)
204 Jelinek → Eimert (3/1961)
205 Jelinek → Eimert (4/1961)
206 Maciunas → Eimert (5/1961)
207 Schlee → Eimert (5/1961)
208 Ritz → Eimert (10/1961)
209 Tabachnick → Eimert (11/1961)
210 Moldenhauer → Eimert (2/1962)
211 Dr. Kaiser → Eimert (2/1962)
212 Bucarelli → Eimert (2/1962)
213 v. Bieberstein → Eimert (3/1962)
214 Wykes → Eimert (3/1962)
215 Vins (Bucarelli) → Eimert (3/1962)
216? → Eimert (3/1962)
217 Siohan → Eimert (4/1962)
218 Stockhausen → Eimert (4/1962)
219 Doris Stockhausen → Eimert (5.4/1962)
220 Dr. Gertrud Marbach → Eimert (4/1962)
221 Krenek → Eimert (10/1962)
222 Krenek → Eimert (11/1962)
223 Lewinski → Eimert (12/1962)
224 Boehmer → Eimert (1/1963)
225 Dr. Kaiser → Eimert (2/1963)
226 Geudtner → Eimert (2/1963)
227 Fylkingen → Eimert (2/1963)
228 Fortner → Eimert (3/1963)
229 Eimert → Fortner (5/1963)
230 Dr. Behne → Eimert (5/1963)
231 Eimert → Dr. Behne (5/1963)
232 Eimert → Dr. Tomek (10/1963)
233 Marion Brand → Eimert (10/1963)
234 Kreiselmeyer → Eimert (12/1963)
235 Metzger → Eimert (1/1964)
236 Makoto Shinohara → Eimert (1/1964)
237 Eimert → Kiemann (2/1964)
238 Baruch → Eimert (3/1964)
239 Eimert → Graßmann (3/1964)
240 Reich → Eimert (4/1964)
241 Reich → Eimert (4/1964)
242 Eimert → Dr. Wagner (5/1964)
243 Witsch → Eimert (6/1964)
244 Witsch → Eimert (6/1964)
245 Wörner → Eimert (6/1964)
246 Eimert → Dr. Wagner (7/1964)
247 Steinsiek (Bertelsmann) → Eimert
(10/1964)
248 Prof. Dr. Mies → Eimert (11/1964)
249 Eimert Catalog of works (1964)
250 Schulze-Andresen → Eimert (2/1965)
251 F. Schmidt → Eimert (2/1965)
252 L. Kleinfeld → Eimert (2/1965)
253 Eimert → F. Schmidt (5/1965)
254 Hocke → Eimert (5/1965)
255 Eimert → Mikat (5/1965)
256 Eimert → Goldschmidt (6/1965)
257 Schröter (Circular) (7/1965)
258 Stockhausen → Eimert (7/1965)
259 Goldschmidt → Eimert (7/1965)
260 Koenig → Eimert (10/1965)
261 Burauen → Eimert (10/1965)
262 Eimert → F. Schmidt (11/1965)
263 Fr. Schmidt → Eimert (11/1965)
264 Prieberg → Eimert (1/1966)
265 Eimert → Prieberg (1/1966)
266 Prieberg → Eimert (1/1966)
267 Gierse [Prof. Marx] → Eimert (1/1966)
268 Enke → Eimert (3/1966)
269 Lieselotte Legers → Eimert (3/1966)
270 Szenkar → Eimert (4/1966)
271 Universal-Edition → Eimert (6/1966)
272 Krenek → Eimert (7/1966)
273 Goldschmidt → Eimert (7/1966)
274 Eimert → Goldschmidt (7/1966)
275 Goldschmidt → Eimert (7/1966)
276 Eimert → Goldschmidt (8/1966)
277 Eimert → Goldschmidt (9/1966)
278 Davies → Eimert (10/1966)
279 F. Schmidt → Eimert (10/1966)
280 Koenig → Eimert (10/1966)
281 Eimert → F. Schmidt (10/1966)
282 F. Schmidt → Eimert (11/1966)
283 WDR (12/1966)
284 Eimert → Oehlschlägel (1/1967)
285 Eimert → Schröter (1/1967)
286 Torp → Eimert (1/1967)
287 Eimert → F. Schmidt (1/1967)
288 F. Schmidt → Eimert (1/1967)
289 Kaegi → Eimert (1/1967)
290 Eimert → F. Schmidt (1/1967)
291 F. Schmidt → Eimert (1/1967)
292 Boehmer → Eimert (2/1967)
293 Pfuhl → Eimert (3/1967)
294 Dr. Gertrud Marbach → Eimert (4/1967)
295 SWR → Eimert (4/1967)
296 Peeters → Eimert (5/1967)
297 Patrick → Eimert (5/1967)
298 Robbe (Staff council circular) (6/1967)
299 Rotter → Eimert (7/1967)
300 Krenek → Eimert (7/1967)
301 Johnson→ Eimert 8/1967)
302 Eimert → Dr. Kaegi (8/1967)
303 Rotter → Eimert (8/1967)
304 Zacher → Eimert (9/1967)
305 Kagel → Eimert (9/1967)
306 Dr. Tomek → Eimert (10/1967)
307 Kaegi → Eimert (10/1967)
308 Breitkopf & Härtel → Eimert (10/1967)
309 Strobel → Eimert (10/1967)
310 Eimert → Graf Strachwitz (11/1967)
311 Maconie → Eimert (11/1967)
312 [Goslar] Eimert → Frankfurter A. Zeitung
(12/1967)
313 Sturmfels → Eimert (12/1967)
314 Dr. van Dam → Eimert (12/1967)
315 Hella Steinecke → Eimert (12/1967)
316 Hartleb → Eimert (12/1967)
317 Eimert → Dr. van Dam (12/1967)
318 Eimert → Stockhausen (1968)
319 Eimert → Moufang/Sturmfels (1/1968)
320 Gielen → Eimert (3/1968)
321 Dr. Tomek → Eimert (3/1968)
322 Teatro Communale Florenz → Eimert (4/1968)
323 Eimert → Löher (4/1968)
324 Emmy Kreiten → Eimert (4/1968)
325 Eimert → Südwestfunk Baden-Baden (5/1968)
326 Eimert → Würtenberger (5/1968)
327 Richter → Eimert (9/1968)
328 K. O. Koch → Eimert (10/1968)
329 Zender → Eimert (12/1968)
330 Engelmann → (12/1968)
331 Jouck → Eimert (1/1969)
332 Münchinger → Eimert (3/1969)
333 Ligeti → Eimert (3/1969)
334 M. Schneider → Eimert (3/1969)
335 Davies → Eimert (6/1969)
336 Follmann → Eimert (6/1969)
337 Prof. Dr. Eggebrecht → Eimert (10/1969)
338 Dr. Gertrud Marbach → Eimert
(12/1969)
339 Press release (12/1969)
340 Eimert → Prof. Dr. Eggebrecht (1/1970)
341 Prof. Dr. Eggebrecht → Eimert (1/1970)
342 Wand → Eimert (1/1970)
343 Eimert → Wand (1/1970)
344 Plum → Eimert (2/1970)
345 Gail (Gürzenich-Sekretariat) → Eimert (5/1970)
346 Eimert → Certification Hoppenrath (5/1970)
347 Dr. Elena Hift → Eimert .(6/1970)
348 Eimert → Schröter (6/1970)
349 Eimert → Schröter (6/1970)
350 Wand → Eimert (6/1970)
351 Hugo Wolfram Schmidt → Eimert (7/1970)
352 Radtke → Eimert (8/1970)
353 Prof. Dr. Oesch → Eimert (10/1970)
354 Eimert → Prof. Dr. Oesch (11/1970)
355 Ligeti → Eimert (3/1971)
356 Dr. Tomek → Eimert (4/1971)
357 Eimert → Dr. Tomek (4/1971)
358 Dr. Tomek → Eimert (5/1971)
359 Dr. Elena Hift → Eimert (5/1971)
360 Raeder → Eimert (5/1971)
361 Dr. Tomek → Eimert (5/1971)
362 Eimert → Ministry of Culture for Hessen (5/1971)
363 Henkemeyer → Eimert (6/1971)
364 Prof. Dr. Eggebrecht → Eimert (7/1971)
365 Schröter → Eimert (8/1971)
366 Eimert → Prof. Dr. Eggebrecht (9/1971)
367 Eimert → Carlo (9/1971)
368 Eimert → Schlee (70/1971)
369 Schröter → Eimert .10/1971)
370 Prof. Jones → Eimert (11/1971)
371 Teresa Procaccini → Eimert (11/1971)
372 Eimert → Baruch (11/1971)
373 Prof. Dr. Oesch → Eimert (10/1971)
374 Dr. Baruch → Eimert (11/1971)
375 Schröter → Eimert (12/1971)
376 Eimert Compilation of electronic pieces (1971)
377 Eimert → Dr. Baruch (12/1971)
378 Eimert → Prof. Dr. Oesch (12/1971)
379 Eimert → Schröter (12/1971)
380 Dr. Tomek → Eimert (12/1971)
381 Radtke → Eimert (12/1971)
382 Süddeutsche Zeitung → Eimert (1/11972)
383 Ina Marchese → Eimert (1/1972)
384 Griffiths → Eimert (1/1971)
385 Kreissparkasse Cologne → Eimert (1/1972)
386 Eimert → K. O. Koch (1/1972)
387 Eimert → Griffiths (2/1972)
388 Mimaroğlu → Eimert (2/1972)
389 Haessig → Eimert (3/1972)
390 Prof. Dr. Sadie → Eimert (3/1972)
391 Haessig → Eimert (3/1972)
392 Eimert → Haessig (4/1972)
393 Eimert → Prof. Dr. Sadie (4/1972)
394 Eimert → Radtke (4/1972)
395 Eimert → Prof. Dr. Sadie (5/1972)
396 Blum → Eimert (5/1972)
397 Dr. Becker → Eimert (5/1972)
398 Griffiths → Eimert (6/1972)
399 Eimert → Dr. Schab (7/1972)
400 Dr. Schab → Eimert (7/1972)
401 Eimert → Dr. Becker (7/1972)
402 Pauli → Eimert (8/1972)
403 Weiss → Eimert (8/1972)
404 Dr. Becker → Eimert (8/1972)
405 Weiss → Eimert (9/1972)
406 Eimert → Bernhard Bosse (12/1972)
407 Bernhard Bosse → Eimert (12/1972)
Fourth part: Appendices
VIII. Opera statistics according to Opera guide book (Storck, Schwers, Eimert) 1899-1949
XIII. Index of publications (up to and including 1962*)
1. Book publications
2. Editorial work
3. Essays and contributions to anthologies
a) Twelve-tone technique and serial music
b) Electronic music
c) General and individual problems
4. Music reviews
5. Vinyl Records
XIV. List of programs in the series Musikalisches Nachtprogramm
XV. Annotated chronological-systematic index of the compositions authorized by Herbert Eimert
Preface
1. The Last Will
Herbert Eimert died on December 22, 1972 in Düsseldorf. He left a will that, among other things, stipulated that all biographical documents be handed over to me after his death. I knew nothing of the existence of such a will; my work sessions with him had not even begun. It was Dr. Marion Rothärmel who told me about the testamentary disposition concerning me after Eimert's death on the day of his funeral, but at first I did not attach any importance to it. It was only after Mrs. Eimert's death (October 16, 1974) that the will was opened (October 31, 1974). A short time later, I received the official notification.
2. The estate
The biographical estate handed over to me consists of 407 letters and postcards written between 1944 and 1972, as well as 22 pictures, mostly in glossy print format, to which I hold the copyright. For this reason, I have not included them. Furthermore, the estate contains no printed music or music manuscripts, no sketches, neither of compositions nor of essays, no scientific works, unpublished works or even attempts at preparatory work, nor any reviews or reports by or about Eimert. This estate has certainly been pre-screened. The discovery that Eimert, for example, wrote only a single biographically important letter in 1958 and received three is implausible. Even if one assumes that Eimert wrote and received most of the letters after 1944 (personal documents prior to that date fell victim to the bombing campaign) and these were no longer in his possession, the number of 407 letters as correspondence, including replies, over a period of just over 25 years is very low and corresponds to an unlikely output of only 16 letters per year. I assume that all sensitive and personal information was removed. Since Eimert used the back pages of broadcasting schedules or notes as carbon copies, officials such as Mr. Plum or Ms. Gail are included in the posthumous honors.
3. Annotated edition
The matter was embarrassing to me for a number of reasons. Composing a biographical essay on Eimert, which might be 20 or 30 pages long and is relatively easy to accomplish, and a biographically supported annotated edition of letters, which is certainly expected and cannot be limited to a catalog- style publication, are two separate things. In the middle of my Wagner and Strawinsky studies in the 1970s, I saw no room for this work for decades to come. Besides, I had no great desire to relive the often unpleasant daily confrontations in the Rhineland of the 1950s and 1960s and to conduct my own research into sources; because with the material that I had been given, the work could not be done. I therefore hesitated for over 20 years before publishing my 'Kleine Monographie über Herbert Eimert' (A Short Monograph on Herbert Eimert) in 1998 on behalf of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig. It emerged from a lecture to the plenary assembly of the Academy's Philological-Historical Class and grew to 50 pages for the print run due to the necessary annotations. Today it is outdated because some of its conclusions were included verbatim in the present publication. The same applies in part to my accompanying text to the spoken-word recording 'Herbert Eimert', which I included in my Wergo series.
I wrote the new work with interest and love, but not with joy; the subject matter, when one recalls the individual unpleasant episodes, is too burdensome for that. There is something troubling about people like Eimert, who can deny themselves for the sake of the cause, when one steps into their shoes and retraces their hopes and defeats. I was obliged, to reverse a word of Gottfried Keller, to describe a procession in which I had participated for many years. I had to combine the required objectivity for the sake of historical truth with the now secondary and far less important need of presenting my own experiences from my perspective, even if this resulted in some disadvantages for me. The fact that he trusted me, of all people, to write his biography still fills me with trepidation today.
4. Encounters with Eimert
I came to Cologne to study in the summer of 1950 and received my doctorate in the summer of 1954 with a thesis on Strawinsky's compositional technique. The topic of my dissertation angered the majority of leading musicologists and opened the editorial offices of newspapers and radio stations to me. In the winter of 1955, to my own surprise, the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, the successor to the former Kölnische Zeitung, hired me specifically because of my dissertation. On the recommendation of library councilor Prof. Dr. Willi Kahl, I got a job in Cologne as a newspaper critic, focussing on new music, chamber music and church music, and so I sat in a row next to Eimert from that time on. “In a row” is to be understood metaphorically; because if the seats were not occupied, Eimert chose the front rows, I the back. Eimert didn't need to catch one of the last trains to Düsseldorf. He paid no further attention to me, quite the opposite! Dr. Seidler, then head of the chamber music department at Cologne Radio, where I worked as a program designer, had tried to set up his own news magazine and had thus become a thorn in Eimert's side. He nipped this attempt in the bud. All those involved, including myself, lost this part of our modest livelihoods. Until October 1958, my dealings with Eimert were limited to a nod of the head during joint concert visits as professionals; and since we both worked in music journalism (Eimert wrote for the 'Kölnische Rundschau'), we saw each other in this uncomplicated way several times a month for over three years.
The relationship, which back then could not be called as such, not even in the journalistic-collegial sense, changed with the publication of my Strawinsky book in August 1958. At the end of an evening of string quartets in the lecture hall of the former Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Eimert suddenly approached me, tapped me briefly on the shoulder as he passed and summoned me to his office the next day. There he paid me compliments until I blushed, and he not only wrote a review in the Bonner Anzeiger, a subsidiary of the Kölnische Rundschau (which was remarkable because it is an unwritten editorial rule never to draw attention to the competition), but he also brought me into his inner circle of the 'Musical Night Program'. Nevertheless, I kept a somewhat shy distance from Eimert, and it was only after his retirement that a closer personal relationship developed. The suggestion to write his biography came from me, not from him, after I had, however, previously published several smaller reports about him at his request, in connection with special occasions. In the first half of 1970, we therefore saw each other at irregular intervals at his bungalow in Cologne-Widdersdorf. Nevertheless, we lost sight of each other after May 1972. In the spring of 1972, I had become director of the Robert Schumann Conservatory in Düsseldorf, which was soon to be established as a music academy (Musikhochschule), and at the time I had so much to deal with myself that there was no time for anything else. So I never saw Eimert again and felt guilty about it.
I also did not know about his serious illness. Eimert was shy, and I myself was also very reserved in my dealings with friends. Nevertheless, I was very familiar with the St. Martinus Hospital in Düsseldorf-Bilk, where Eimert was staying. It was here that I met my future wife, Dr. med. Eva Maria Berke, in 1965. She had looked after my sick mother as a ward physician in the internal medicine department. To make matters worse, I also passed the Martinus Hospital every day on my way to and from the conservatory in Neuss.
Then Frau Eimert died, and I hadn't seen her since the funeral either. There was a reading of the will in my absence, and an unknown lawyer from Cologne called Creutz urged me, together with Dr. Rothärmel, to accept the inheritance, which I then did.
5. The working method
The special working sessions between Eimert and me took place from March 18, 1970. We usually met every other Sunday after lunch without time constraints in his Widdersdorf Bungalow in a relaxed, almost cheerful atmosphere and talked to each other. I typed my handwritten notes by the next meeting and asked Eimert to correct the facts; as agreed, Eimert had no input into the evaluations. I didn't even show them to him. This procedure has also proven very useful for me in dealing with other artists, such as Stockhausen.
Unlike Wörner when writing his biography of Stockhausen, I did not work with recording equipment. Eimert only spoke about himself in response to specific questions, and his inclination towards talking about himself was limited. A request to speak necessary biographical background knowledge, personal assessments and intimate experiences onto tape for the sake of simplicity would have completely dried up the already faltering flow of speech. The man who was so shy that he didn't even go to a shoe store when he needed shoes, but instead had his wife send a selection home to choose from, had to be treated very carefully if one didn't want to run the risk of silencing him. The disadvantages are obvious. Handwritten notes and remarks are no easier to read after 25 or 50 years. Today, I can no longer do anything with many of my notes because I no longer know the context for sure. However, I did note critical things in small case block letters at the time. Nevertheless, a number of connections are unclear to me, especially where later biographical work has revealed the need for further inquiries that are no longer possible, especially not for problems that only arise from knowledge of the estate documents. To avoid misunderstandings: this work has nothing to do with the 125th anniversary of Eimert's birth and the 50th anniversary of his death in 2022, but is the result of the passage of time.
6. Thanks
Dr. Marion Rothärmel and the Cologne lawyer Günter Creutz, who worked hard to fulfill Eimert's estate settlement, without which a scientific biography could not be written. I am therefore very grateful to both of them. I pay tribute by dedicating this publication (in memoriam) to Dr. Marion Rothärmel (†) and Mr. Günter Creutz (†).
Düsseldorf-Pempelfort in December 2021 / in February 2025
HK
First part: The time up to 1945
I. Family relationships
1. The family background
Otto Eugen Herbert Eimert was born on April 8, 1897 in Bad Kreuznach an der Nahe. Both parents came from East Prussia. But East Prussia was not the original home of the Eimerts; because the paternal line leads to Salzburg, the maternal line to Poland. When the local archbishop sent away a number of his country's children in 1721 because he did not like their rebellious political and religious views, the Eimerts were among those who had to leave Austria and found a new home in East Prussia. The emigrants or resettlers have gone down in cultural and religious history as the so-called 'Salzburg emigrants'. Herbert Eimert was proud of this ancestry and never forgot to emphasize it.
2. The father
Eimert's father, Wilhelm Otto, better known as Wilhelm, was born on June 7, 1867 in the East Prussian village of Ribben in the district of Sensburg. He came from a modest background. All of his ancestors were craftsmen, mainly blacksmiths. Wilhelm Eimert completed a teacher training program and came to Bad Kreuznach as a teacher at a young age. At the age of 60, he became vice-principal, and at 65 (in 1932), he retired. On July 31, 1940, at the beginning of his 73rd year, he died of pneumonia.
Without Eimert ever having commented on it himself, the naming of Wilhelm and Otto can be seen as an expression of his grandparents' particularly national, i.e. but for 1867 royal Prussian, sentiment. At that time, William, successor to Frederick William IV, was still King of Prussia before becoming German Emperor as William I (after the victorious war of 1870/71 against France). Graf Otto von Bismarck was, after the victory over the Danes in 1864 and the Austrians in 1864, an already highly esteemed prime minister, since 1871 a princely imperial chancellor – it was no wonder that many Prussian-orientated families named their sons Friedrich, Wilhelm, Otto, Friedrich-Wilhelm, or, as in this case, Wilhelm Otto. This interpretation is supported by his occupation as a teacher in Kreuznach. From Berlin, an increasingly oppressive policy of repression of Catholic life on both sides of the Rhine was pursued with the help of spreading Protestant ideas, and leading positions in all areas of public life were filled by Prussian-leaning civil servants from Berlin. In any case, in Prussia the appointment or nomination of Catholics as university professors or district administrators was fundamentally forbidden, a verdict that was only lifted after 1900 under Kaiser Wilhelm II. Even the founding of the Rhenish-Westphalian Technical College in Aachen was seen in Prussia as the erection of a Prussian stronghold in the middle of a center of Catholic life, where no Catholics were appointed as professors until well into the 20th century. This additionally incriminating development, caused by the so-called 'Kulturkampf' (cultural struggle) from 1872 to 1880, which in reality was a systematically conducted bloodless persecution of Catholics under a nationalist pretext, justified the Rhinelanders' hatred of Prussia and made them seek separatist proximity to France. Kreuznach, founded in the 12th century and part of the Palatinate until 1815, then Prussian, formed the southern border of the Prussian-ruled Rhine Province at the time of Wilhelm Otto Eimert, a small town of a few thousand inhabitants. Into the vacuum created by Bismarck's Kulturkampf measures (many Catholic teachers refused to practise their profession or were not allowed to be admitted or even removed from service**), Berlin sent its district administrators, professors and, as was certainly also the case with Wilhelm Otto Eimert, its simpler teachers to enable the Prussian transformation, which by no means was only harmful to the Rhineland. Herbert Eimert himself was imperial-royal-Prussian-Protestant-German minded.
Wilhelm Otto Eimert embodied the type of the East Prussian stubborn type who saw things through once he had made up his mind. His son described him as a good man, quiet by nature, rather pensive, perhaps even a little eccentric, who spent a lot of time with his butterfly collection, which he had put together and prepared himself, and which gradually became famous because of its size. It later went to the Kreuznach local history museum, where it can no longer be found today.
On Saturdays, Wilhelm Eimert went to the inn. He drank one or two glasses there, and the usually quiet man would open up in harmless conviviality after the first glass, so that he began to talk and also showed humor.
Even more famous than the butterfly collection were his flower cultures. Wilhelm Eimert was a passionate gardener and grew specialties, including standard Fuchsias, which were said to be so beautiful that everyone was enchanted by them. For half a century after that, the Eimert family would proudly tell the story of how, during the days of the First World War in 1917/18, when the Great Headquarters were located in the Hotel Oranienhof in Bad Kreuznach, the Supreme Commander of the Field Army, Field Marshal von Hindenburg, and his Quartermaster General, General Ludendorf, stopped in front of the house at Königstraße 30 and admired father's fuchsia trees.
Eimert’s father was musical, and his musicality was cultivated by his teaching profession. At that time, every primary school teacher had to play a musical instrument so that the artistic or musical element in teaching remained an essential part of school education and so that pupils were not driven into an exclusively intellectualism that stunted their emotional life, a fundamental and not merely exceptional obligation to music that was only repealed in North Rhine-Westphalia after 1945 under the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Minister of Education Paul Mikat. The prospective teachers usually chose the violin because not every school had a piano and a string instrument could be taken anywhere. Wilhelm Eimert also played the violin primarily, and, as his son later testified, quite well, but also the piano, the organ somewhat pedantically, and also zither and, as a curiosity, ocarina.
* see Helmut Kirchmeyer: Aus der religiös-konfessionellen Polemik in der Musikspekulation des 19. Jahrhunderts (From the religious-confessional polemics in music speculation in the 19th century), in: Musicae Sacrae Ministerium. Beiträge zur Geschichte der kirchenmusikalischen Erneuerung im XIX. Jahrhundert (Contributions to the history of church music renewal in the 19th century). Publication series of the ‚Allgemeiner Caecilien-Verband für die Länder der deutschen Sprache‘ (Series of publications by the General Cecilia Association for the German language countries’), vol. 5, Cologne 1962, pp. 67-89.
** This also happened to my paternal grandfather. He lost his primary teaching job (called 'elementary teacher' at that time), had to start over, and later became a surveyor in Düsseldorf thanks to his above-average mathematical talent.
*** according to Johannes Schwermer, who received the corresponding information at the Kreuznach Museum.
3. The mother
The mother Hedwig Mathilde Enders, called Hedwig, came from Osterode, which is also in East Prussia. She was born there on October 5, 1867, just a few months after Wilhelm Otto Eimert. The mother belonged to the higher classes. Her ancestors were furniture manufacturers, and of the better kind, in whose factories machines were already being used, such as an electric motor for generating light, which meant something very special at that time. She outlived her husband by 19 years and died after falling from an escalator at the age of 89 on December 21, 1956 in Bad Kreuznach.
The mother is described as lively without being boisterous; in any case, she was more talkative and approachable than the father. She had the habit of reading aloud, which experience has shown to be particularly beneficial for family life. In general, the family was well cared for by the mother. As was common at the time, they bathed at the weekend, a process that the son still remembered so well in old age because his father walked up and down while playing the violin during the Saturday bath.
Hedwig Eimert was thrifty without being miserly, and probably had reason to be; teachers were not paid well in those days. She apparently had a healthy talent for business and organization. She rented out six rooms of the Eimert’s apartment to the Hotel Oranienhof and successfully managed her private empire. Her husband sold two houses that he had acquired during World War I, in the inflationary period, and thereby lost his fortune. The mother suffered greatly from the self-inflicted stroke of fate, but, as Eimert emphasized, family life was not disrupted. Wilhelm Eimert spent his whole life making up for his failed business venture.
4. Siblings
Herbert Eimert had three siblings: an older brother Hans and two sisters, Grete and Else.
Hans, the brother, was one of those scientifically and technically gifted individuals who could not cope with the Kaiserliche Sprachschule. After being demoted twice, he left, did a technical apprenticeship and later acquired the chemical apparatus company Eckert with his Kreuznacher friend Otto Gaßner, which he successfully managed as sole owner after separating from Gaßner, who became rector of the Technical University of Berlin. Hans Eimert made quite a few inventions. Among other things, he constructed a wool thread weighing scale and developed an aluminium strip for film still projection. The company was lost in 1945. He did not show any musical ability of noteworthiness. The relationship between the two brothers was neutrally good, with no disputes. Hans Eimert was married.
His sister Grete died too young to play a defining role in Eimert's life.
On the other hand, the connection to Else Eimert was all the more intimate, since they shared the same outlook on life. Herbert Eimert had the closest relationship with her, and the relationship remained warm until the end. Else Eimert was very musical. She appeared as a violinist at an early age and was initially trained by Otto Voigt, who came from the Mainz Orchestra and settled in Kreuznach as a private music teacher. He had a reputation as an extremely capable man. In mid-1911, Else Eimert went to Hamburg to study with Goby Eberhardt. Eberhardt (actually Johann Jakob Eberhardt), who was born in Hattersdorf near Frankfurt on March 29, 1852 and died in Lübeck on September 13, 1926, was a famous violin teacher in his time, who wrote many scholarly works about violinists and violin teaching. In 1900, at the age of only forty-eight, a stroke left him paralyzed on the left side and ended his concert career. He then developed a method of silent practice based on that of Paganini and, with extreme self-discipline, managed to make his left hand mobile again. His fragile health forced him to change location frequently. On April 27, 1911, a note in the 'Neue Zeitschrift für Musik' reported on the success of Goby's teaching method with a promotional and laudatory postscript: “From October onwards, Goby Eberhardt's violin school will move from Berlin to Hamburg and will be affiliated to Vogt’s Conservatory”*. According to Eimert, his son Siegfried (born March 19, 1883 in Frankfurt), who wrote Berlin concert reports in the same magazine, was in charge of the school at the time. Following Spohr's example, Siegfried Eberhardt developed a flat middle chin rest attached above the center of the violin and advocated a principle of the organic violin posture. The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 prevented his sister’s training to concert performance standard. Else Eimert returned to Bad Kreuznach, stayed with her mother and worked as a music teacher there until her death. She never married.
* Neue Zeitschrift für Musik LXXVIII/17, April 27, 1911, p. 260a.
** Ernst Stier: Goby Eberhardt and his Method of Playing the Violin, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik XL/15, July 18, 1909, p. 209a-211a.
5. The uncle
An uncle Georg played a special role in this family life. Like Wilhelm Otto, he was a teacher and, being in poor health, came from Berlin, where he lived unmarried, to Bad Kreuznach every other year from 1906 to 1912 for convalescence, as the salt springs there (called 'Mutterlauge') promised relief or healing. He must have been an excellent violinist, having studied with Joseph Joachim, and he left an unforgettable musical impression on Eimert.
6. Living conditions
When Herbert Eimert was born, the Eimert family lived in a normal apartment at 105 Mannheimerstraße. In 1907, when Eimert had just turned 10, the family moved for twelve years until 1919 to Königstraße 30. It was a huge apartment of eight rooms, of which the mother separated off six rooms and rented them out in connection with the Kreuznach Hotel Oranienhof, which was the most prominent of the time. * The rest of the later abandoned Hotel Oranienhof was preserved as the Hindenburg Museum in memory of the days of the Great Headquarters under Hindenburg. During his time working at the newspaper, Eimert lived in Bonn, at Koblenzerstraße 44, where he was bombed out on October 18, 1944. After the war, he lived in Cologne-Sülz, at Mayenerstraße 8, and later at Meister-Johann-Str. 6, before moving to his retirement bungalow at Christian-Hünseler-Str. 58 in Cologne-Widdersdorf.
* I have my doubts about this account today. If it is true, then five people must have lived in two rooms at the time. That is implausible. I have written everything down exactly as Eimert told it to me. Eimert must have made a mistake or must have skimmed over my notes too quickly at this point.
7. The marriage
Eimert's wife Adelheid Flora Anna Meis, called Adelheid, nickname Heidi, came from a Protestant missionary family and was born on June 24, 1898 in Pangaribouan on Sumatra. She was not Indonesian, although she loved to draw comparisons in favor of Indonesia between the Indonesian 'home' and the 'cool' Germany, which Eimert did not take quite so seriously. Occasionally, he would scoff in her presence, saying that she had grown up 'with the gorillas', knowing full well that there are no gorillas in Sumatra. Eimert's will also benefited the Rhenish Mission and its museum. She was a woman who, even in old age, was still striking, educated and intelligent, and, quite unlike her husband, who was quite heavy, she was tall and slender, wore her jet-black hair combed back smoothly and indeed had a slightly exotic appearance, which she cultivated, right down to the elegant black stockings. She loved the colors pink and red and therefore furnished her home with cherrywood furniture, and she also brought color into the life of her shy husband. She shielded him from all the many adversities of everyday life, so that Eimert was able to devote himself entirely to his profession and his interests. Her hospitality was highly esteemed; Ernst Krenek still raved about her rice recipes [57]. She survived her husband by only two years, dying on October 16, 1974. Until the end, she lived in her bungalow in Cologne-Widdersdorf. She and Eimert met while studying at the university; I don't know when they got married. As far as my wife and I were aware, the marriage was good. In the artistic circles of the time there were no rumors about any outbursts or 'infidelities' by Eimert or his wife. Mrs. Eimert must have been very lonely after her husband's death. During the first years of my time at the Düsseldorf Conservatory, I was so tied up with the controversies at the conservatory that I never saw her again after Herbert Eimert's funeral, something I now regret. According to what Dr. Marion Rothärmel, who still kept in touch with her, told me, she must have fallen next to her bed and lay there for days. A critic at the 'Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger', Ms. Margo Schulze-Schuchardt, who lived not far from the Eimerts, was surprised not to have seen the old woman for a few days, and she also noticed that her letterbox was overflowing. She called Rothärmels, and they arranged to have the apartment opened. Mrs. Eimert was still alive and was taken to a hospital, but she was so weakened that she died shortly afterwards.
8. Children
Eimert had no children. He was haunted by the thought of what would happen to his collection of valuable modern paintings after his and his wife's death. He first tried to persuade Dr. Marion Rothärmel, the daughter of his friend Rothärmel, to be adopted. But Marion Rothärmel did not want to. She was too attached to her parents. She was not tempted by material possessions, especially since she herself came from a wealthy family. So they adopted an orphan, Dorothea Brings, born on September 22, 1944 in Masserberg in Thuringia. Dorothea Brings, now Dorothea Eimert, studied art history at the University of Cologne and received her doctorate in 1973 with the dissertation “The Influence of Futurism on German Painting”. After working as an assistant at the Leopold Hoesch Museum in Düren, she became its director in 1978 and developed an additional museum focus there by establishing a paper museum affiliated with the museum in accordance with local tradition. Greatly honored, she retired in 2009 and was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, Second Class (with ribbon), in 2011.
9. Character traits
When Herbert Eimert described his father and mother, one got the impression that he was describing himself. Withdrawal, pensiveness, even eccentricity, great musicality, pedagogical talent, assertiveness combined with a sense of self-preservation, organizational ability, but also kindness and a willingness to help, idealism, family spirit and, when the conditions were right, humor with the ability to be silly* – these are the characteristics of the introverted Herbert Eimert, whose antenna to the outside world was later his wife. And in the Eimert household, no one ever raised a hand, not out of principle, but out of nature, certainly unusual in those years when corporal punishment was part of the daily routine. The way of life, whether it was quintessentially Austrian or East Prussian, was caught up by fascism, which caused even the most talkative to remain silent if they valued their lives. Thus, natural disposition and situational experience combined for intellectual and existential survival in the years 1933 to 1945 and shaped Eimert, as his contemporaries remembered him after 1948. During concert intermissions, Eimert usually sought out the middle point between two ashtrays, lit a cigarette, and began to smoke leisurely. If he was drawn into a conversation, which was usually unpleasant for him, he would slowly walk to the nearest ashtray, brush off the ashes and return just as deliberately slowly to continue the conversation, which he had thus cleverly shortened by a minute or two.
But no story sheds such a revealing light on Eimert’s personality as his explanation for not joining Adolf Hitler's 'National Socialist German Workers' Party' (NSDAP). Membership to the party was not just a matter of individual choice. The pressure on individuals to join became stronger the higher their position, especially after the expiry of the waiting period in 1937. At that time, the Kölnische Zeitung had 39 editors. Of these, 37 were party members, with the exception of Herbert Eimert and the editor Dr. Hauenstein, who went to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung after the war. One day, the editor-in-chief of the Kölnische Zeitung, which the National Socialists watched with suspicion, called his editors together and told them that he had registered them all to join the party. Those who did not want to join could speak up; those who agreed should go with the others to the relevant party office to sign up. This was presumably a way of covering themselves. Eimert did not explain how Dr. Hauenstein escaped the matter, but he did explain how he himself fared. On the day the signatures were to be provided, Eimert was suffering from influenza and was not present. He was therefore unable to sign his party membership. After that, the matter was forgotten. The story sounds like an anecdote from the bloody times of the French Revolution, when a count who had been sentenced to death and was to be executed asked for a day's delay because his stockings or shoes or coat had been given away to be mended or washed, but the guard in charge was also killed that same day by the blood justice, and the count, who kept quiet and was long since thought to have been killed according to the list, was able to leave prison more or less unscathed at the end of the reign of terror. The case sheds such a special light on Eimert because, after all, no one but he himself knew about this story, and he could have taken it to the grave and, in addition, played the great resistance fighter at the risk of his life. The seriousness demonstrated here in the understanding of history for posterity, with its nimbus-destroying truthfulness for the sake of truth, creates credibility in those cases in which nothing but one's own testimony is available. I had deliberately asked the question at the beginning of my first biographical encounter in Widdersdorf. If Eimert had told me something about 'resistance' back then, I would have given him a friendly look because I knew what was going on, but it would not have led to any further biographical conversations. Under Hitler, there was not even mere verbal resistance. Anyone who was even suspected of not favoring National Socialism had to expect, at worst, a ban on writing and working, as happened to Stuckenschmidt and resulted in the destruction of his livelihood and consequently led to exile, or ended, like in the case of Kreiten, at the gallows for attempting dissent, or, like Huber and the Scholl siblings, on the guillotine.
* The article “Historia von der Geburth der electronischen Musica”, which the 'Kölnische Rundschau' ('Kölnische Buntschau') published in its 'laugh edition' for the 1964 carnival season, will not have appeared without Eimert's consent, if not his participation. The (unnamed) article was written by Marion Rothärmel, who was already an editor at the time and loved mystifying signatures for her various contributions, such as 'Carmen Blaurock' (her horse was called Carmen, and she made >Blau< and >rock< from the parts of the name >Roth< and >ärmel<). Eimert was open to this kind of humor. The allusion to Strobel and to the Pfitzner bon mot ('Egk mich am Orff') points to an author or authoress with knowledge of the situation anyway.
II. Childhood and youth
1. Elementary school
The date of his enrolment in elementary school can be inferred from Eimert's information about ten years (!) of high school. Accordingly, he must have gone to school for the first time in Bad Kreuznach at the age of seven, at Easter 1904. There is nothing of note to report from this time. All private records were destroyed in the fire. In any case, Eimert received a normal four-year elementary school education, the curriculum corresponded to the Prussian specification of the time. He then attended the State Grammar School in Kreuznach.
2. The Gymnasium
He had no inclination to go to school, not even to the gymnasium, and rather developed a kind of love-hate relationship. Eimert's claim that he was top of the class throughout his time at the gymnasium and was therefore always awarded the Easter bonus, in Obersekunda even the Kaiserpreis, a naval book, is confirmed by a letter from a classmate, Theo Kreiselmeyer. This letter is one of the few personal references in the estate [234] and even expands on Eimert's own information: Eimert must have been an exceptionally good swimmer and diver. Years later, he received his first artistic-scientific instruction through swimming, or rather through a swimming colleague.
Contrary to the typical pupil perspective, Eimert felt that the school and his teachers did not undervalue him, but rather overrated him, whether this was true or not. He was top of the class without trying hard; he recognized his own weaknesses before others did and compensated for them. He was self-critical, adventurous and probably felt repelled by the school uniform. All in all, he was a top student without a top student mentality, who was not unpopular with his fellow students. Eimert's penchant for a type of prank that already bordered on the illegal may have contributed to this.
Even in old age, Eimert remembered many of his teachers, not necessarily always to their advantage. His great role model was Prof. Linsenbart, who taught ancient languages, a philosophically minded, intellectual person, but, to Eimert's chagrin, not one of his teachers. He saw his Latin teacher Rübmann as the opposite of Linsebart, characterizing him as a dry language craftsman. In Geisenheyner, a relative of the then feature editor Karl Geisenheyner from the Frankfurter Zeitung, he met an outstanding naturalist. Geisenheyner came from elementary school, educated himself, started studying at 40, graduated at 60, and at the age of 80 became an honorary doctor of the University of Frankfurt. At the grammar school, he taught not only natural history but also singing, and through this subject he taught primarily folk songs in the style of the Berlin School. His English teacher, Dr. Heck, also left memories. He brought the 'Times' with him to class and was probably very musical, a friend of Elly Ney, whom he brought to Bad Kreuznach for a concert. He also provided the class with good pictures, which the later art connoisseur Eimert remembered with grateful appreciation.
The outbreak of war in the fall of 1914 prevented the upcoming Abitur examination.
3. Religious education
Eimert later recalled religious education during this time, and especially the four Protestant pastors he had met, only reluctantly, although the bad impressions they left behind had no negative religious impact on him. They were, as Eimert put it, 'a little strange'. Three of them had been useless as educators. One of them (Eimert also mentioned the name), whose son he greatly respected, had to leave; another drowned in the Nahe, a third was involved in bar fights. There must also have been a problem with the administration. Eimert reported that the church was not even notified of the exams. The only normal one among the Protestant educators was a pastor Josten, who felt sorry for Eimert because, in his view, Eimert was “mentally somewhat backward
